Maintenance assistance for a vehicle

ABSTRACT

A system and method to provide navigational maintenance assistance for a vehicle includes a first step of estimating when the vehicle will require maintenance. A next step includes establishing a location and direction of travel of the vehicle. A next step includes searching a database for any service stations within a range of the vehicle and ahead of the location of the vehicle in the direction of travel of the vehicle before the vehicle becomes disabled. This step can be provided by a remote service provider. A next step includes presenting the found service stations from the searching step to a driver of the vehicle via a user interface.

The present application is a divisional application of, and claimspriority and full benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 120 of previous U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/752,865, for “Maintenance Assistance For aVehicle”, filed Jan. 7, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,412,313, and which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to navigation systems. Moreparticularly, the invention is directed to a providing maintenanceassistance using a navigation system and a database of service stations.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Wireless communication technology, such as is used with cellular phonesor in-vehicle communications such as Telematics systems, is becomingmuch more sophisticated as the technology evolves. Presently, wirelesscommunication systems and devices have the capability to not onlyprovide communication between people, but also can acquire and providedifferent types of content including information from various sources.

For example, there are presently many different types of navigationsystems that will direct a driver of a vehicle from a starting point toa destination point. These systems generally give audio or visualindications of a particular route to take to arrive at the desireddestination. Some navigation systems go further by providingsupplementary information to a driver at a particular location. Forexample, systems can provide location-based advertising that gives adriver a list of available products or services within a radius of thepresent location of the vehicle. However, one serious drawback to thesesystems is that a driver may not want to reverse directions to go backto a vendor that the driver has already passed along the driver's route.Moreover, a driver may be subject to a high number of unsolicited andundesired advertisements, which will be distracting to the driver. Inaddition, it is envisioned that many of these advertisement would not beapplicable to a particular vehicle or driver.

What is needed is a method and system to provide navigationalinformation for a driver of a vehicle to obtain maintenance. It would bean advantage to have such navigational information direct the driver toa location ahead of the driver in a direction of travel of the vehicle.Further, it would be of benefit to predict when maintenance is neededand direct the driver to a location providing a corresponding product orservice before the vehicle is disabled. It would also be of benefit totailor the information content in accordance with driver preferences.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a communication systemfor navigational maintenance assistance, in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a search zone, in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is a calculation of range, in accordance with the presentinvention; and

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a method of navigational maintenanceassistance, in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention provides a method and system to providenavigational information for a driver of a vehicle to obtainmaintenance, such as refueling for example. It would be an advantage tohave such navigational information direct the driver to a location aheadof the driver in a direction of travel of the vehicle. Further, it wouldbe of benefit to predict when maintenance is needed and direct thedriver to a location providing a corresponding product or service beforethe vehicle is disabled. It would also be of benefit to tailor theinformation content in accordance with driver preferences. For example,a preferred gasoline brand can be specified.

The invention will have application apart from the preferred embodimentsdescribed herein, and the description is provided merely to illustrateand describe the invention and it should in no way be taken as limitingof the invention. For example, although a refueling example ispresented, any maintenance item of a vehicle can be addressed. While thespecification concludes with claims defining the features of theinvention that are regarded as novel, it is believed that the inventionwill be better understood from a consideration of the followingdescription in conjunction with the drawing figures, in which likereference numerals are carried forward. As defined in the invention, aradiotelephone is a communication device that communicates informationto a base station using electromagnetic waves in the radio frequencyrange. In general, the radiotelephone is portable or mobile and is ableto receive and transmit, such as a Telematics unit for example. However,the present invention is equally adaptable to any communication deviceand user interface, be they wireless or wireline.

The concept of the present invention can be advantageously used on anyelectronic product with data transfer. Preferably, the radiotelephoneportion of the communication device is a cellular radiotelephone adaptedfor personal communication, but may also be a pager, cordlessradiotelephone, a personal digital communication cellularradiotelephone, or mobile communication system. The radiotelephoneportion is constructed in accordance with a known communicationstandard, such as the DCS, PCS, GSM, CDMA or TDMA standards as are knownin the art, or future digital communication standards that are presentlybeing developed. The radiotelephone portion generally includes a radiofrequency (RF) transmitter, an RF receiver, memory, a digital signalprocessor, and a microprocessor. The electronics incorporated into avehicle, cellular phone, two-way radio or selective radio receiver, arewell known in the art, and can be incorporated into the communicationdevice of the present invention.

Many types of digital communication devices can use the presentinvention to advantage. By way of example only, the communication deviceis embodied in a cellular mobile radiotelephone having a conventionalcellular radio transceiver circuitry, as is known in the art, and willnot be presented here for simplicity. The cellular radiotelephone,includes conventional cellular phone hardware (also not represented forsimplicity) such as processors and user interfaces that are integratedin a vehicle, and further includes microprocessing and digitalprocessing circuitry, in accordance with the present invention. Eachparticular wireline or wireless device will offer opportunities forimplementing this concept and the means selected for each application.

A series of specific embodiments are presented, ranging from theabstract to the practical, which illustrate the application of the basicprecepts of the invention. Different embodiments will be included asspecific examples. Each of which provides an intentional modificationof, or addition to, the method and apparatus described herein.

Referring to FIG. 1, the present invention is a system 10 to providenavigational maintenance assistance for a vehicle. The system 10including a service provider network 12 and a communication device 14,such as a vehicular communication device, with a user interface andtransceiver circuitry. The communication device 14 is operable todownload navigational information 18 from the service provider network12, to be provided to the user interface 16, which can include audiodevice (such as microphone 17 and speaker 19) or display devices (notshown). The navigational information can include locations of servicestations and/or navigational information to direct a driver to a servicestation (herein defined as facilities for maintenance and serviceincluding gas stations, automobile repair shops, automobile dealerships,and the like). For example, if the vehicle has geographic locationcapabilities and an on-board navigation system, the vehicle would onlyneed addresses of service stations to determine its own route. If thevehicle does not have on-board navigation, and the driver requiresnavigational information from a network service provider, the networkservice provider can provide a route to selected service stations.

In a preferred embodiment, the system 10 includes at least one sensor15, such as a fuel level sensor; a positioning device 20 that candetermine a location and direction of travel of the vehicle; a databaseof information 18 on service (refueling) stations and the like; and aprocessor coupled to the sensor and user interface, and in communicationwith the positioning device 20 and database of information 18. Theprocessor is operable to estimate a remaining-fuel range of the vehicleor estimate a range for any upcoming or immediately requiredmaintenance, establish a location and direction of travel of thevehicle, and find from the database any service stations within theestimated range of the vehicle and ahead of the location of the vehiclein the direction of travel of the vehicle. The user interface 16 acceptsinformation on the found service stations from the processor andpresents the information to a driver of the vehicle.

The processor estimates the remaining-fuel range of the vehicle using anamount of remaining fuel as indicated by the fuel sensor and a mileagerate of the vehicle. Preferably, the system also estimates a time offuel remaining using a speed of the vehicle, as will be explained below.In a preferred embodiment, the user interface is operable to enterrefueling preferences of the driver, and the processor is operable tofilter the found refueling stations with the refueling preferences, aswill be explained below

Using the navigation system 10 described above, a method fornavigational maintenance assistance for a vehicle is provided. Thetechniques described in this application could apply to any maintenance,but is particularly appropriate for those instances when the vehiclecould be become disabled if maintenance is not performed. This isparticularly applicable to refueling the vehicle. Some key aspects ofthis method is looking for service stations that are ahead of thevehicle location in the direction of travel of the vehicle, based ondriver preference information, and retrieving this information for thedriver. Such a method is based upon selection criteria, user locationinformation, direction of travel, and proximity of services stations.

In practice, and referring to FIG. 2, the zone 22 of searching wouldresemble a pie-shape with an apex at the present location of the vehicle24 with an axis along the direction of travel of the vehicle andcovering a predetermined angular range 23 to either side of thedirection of travel 25 of the vehicle 24. The limit of the pie-shapewould be defined as the range 21 (d^(est), t^(est)) the vehicle cantravel before becoming disabled. Preferably, the pie-shape could begreatly modified by the system processor depending on local conditionssuch as traffic, construction, speed limits, previous travel history onthat particular route, etc, and whether the driver already has a plannedroute change ahead. In these cases the pie-shape may become quiteirregular and barely resemble a pie-shape at all, other than to directthe search ahead of the vehicle along a direction of travel of thevehicle.

Referring to FIG. 4, a first step of the method includes estimating 40 arange a vehicle can travel before an unattended maintenance task willdisable the vehicle. It is envisioned that the most probably maintenanceapplication would be for refueling the vehicle. Preferably, this step ispreceded by a triggering step 42 wherein a sensor or diagnostic on thevehicle is used to trigger the method, such as those sensors availablewith an on-board diagnostics (OBD II) system, as is known in the art.For example, a low fuel level warning, low oil pressure warning, low oillevel warning or low coolant level warning could trigger this step,among others. Specifically, a low fuel warning would be dependent upon apredetermined fuel volume that is either measured or estimated.Alternatively, a driver can manually activate the trigger.

Referring to FIG. 3, for refueling maintenance, a remaining-fuel rangeis estimated using an existing amount of fuel in the vehicle and amileage rate of the vehicle. For example, the distance a vehicle cantravel before it runs out of fuel is simply the remaining fuel volumemultiplied by an estimated mileage rate of the vehicle to obtain anestimated attainable distance, d^(est). The estimated mileage can be arunning average, or could be filtered with external information such astemperature of the engine, outside temperature, tire pressure and thelike to estimate a likely current mileage to obtain a more accurateestimated attainable distance. This value is then used to search forservice station within the pie-shaped search region (as shown in FIG.2).

Referring back to FIG. 3, it is preferred that the estimating step 40also includes an estimated time until the vehicle runs out of fuel. Thisis important in those cases were the vehicle may not be attaining itsbest mileage, such as in heavy traffic. In this case, a more accuraterange can be estimated by including the speed of the vehicle anddividing the previously estimated distance (d^(est)) by the speed of thevehicle to determine the estimated time of fuel remaining, t^(est). Thevehicle speed can be a running average, can be dynamically tracked inreal time, or could be filtered with external information ahead of thevehicle on the planned route being traveled, such as traffic conditions,time of day, construction, speed limits, and the like, to estimate amore likely attainable range. This value is then used to modify thepie-shaped search region (as shown in FIG. 2) to provide a morerealistic range before running out of fuel. Those skilled in the artwill appreciate that myriad different kinds of information can come intothis information pool of external conditions.

A next step includes establishing 44 a location and direction of travelof the vehicle. This can be done by using the processor of theon-vehicle systems, such as GPS as is known in the art, or by a networkservice provider using communication techniques known in the art. Thelocation and direction are important for determining the apex,direction, and angular range of the pie-shaped search zone (as shown inFIG. 2).

A next step includes searching 46 a database for any service stations(or automobile repair shops, automobile dealerships, etc.) within therange of the estimating step and ahead of the location of the vehicle inthe direction of travel of the vehicle, as defined by the pie-shape (asshown in FIG. 2). Specifically, the pie-shape covers a predeterminedangular range to either side of the direction of travel of the vehicleand limited by the estimated range the vehicle can travel beforebecoming disabled. The database being searched can comprise anon-vehicle database by the communication system processor or a searchfor service stations by contacting 48 and requesting a database searchfrom the network service provider. Although on-vehicle databases areknown, these are usually not updated and therefore do not containcurrent information. Therefore, it is preferred that the vehicle makescontact 48 and requests the service provider to locate service stationswithin the pie-shaped zone defined previously.

The search can be filtered by looking for only those service stationsthat can provide the needed assistance, depending on the requiredmaintenance. The search depends upon predefined criteria associated witheach service station in the database. For example, only some servicestations can provide towing assistance, and only some service stationscan provide diesel fuel, etc. Such criteria are commonly categorized byservice stations, as can be determined in a simple Yellow Pages phonebook search, for example. Alternatively, the search can be filtered 50by the vehicle or service provider using defined user preferences aswill be explained below. Either an on-board vehicle processor or networkservice provider can also determine whether any interaction from theuser is necessary in order to obtain further information.

It should be noted that, if no service stations are found 52 within thepie-shaped search zone, the angle of the sides of the axis of thepie-shape can be expanded 54 (such as to a semicircle or larger) toinclude any service stations that are to the side or even behind thedirection of travel of the vehicle. As shown in FIG. 2, such angleexpansion 26 can then include more service stations (A, E). Referringback to FIG. 4, in the worst case, a complete circle around the vehiclecould be searched 56 by the system processor, being the default case ifthe vehicle is stopped 58 (e.g. disabled), and which will find thoseservice stations nearest to the location of the vehicle. If it is stillthe case that no service stations are found, the radius of the searchcircle can be expanded 60 until a service station is found. In addition,an automatic road side assistance call can be generated 62 if thevehicle is disabled, and the user can be present a close landmark orintersection location to give to guide a person coming to aid thedriver.

If a network service provider database was searched, a next step wouldbe downloading 64 the search results to the vehicle.

A next step would be presenting 66 the found service stations from thesearching step to a driver of the vehicle, such that the user can choosea service station and be guided thereto, if desired, by an existingnavigation system.

In practice, and referring back to FIG. 2, a vehicle 24 is shown on aroadway with regular one block street sectors 27. It is estimated thatthe vehicle 24 has enough fuel to travel a range 21 of about threeblocks. The database shows that there are five service stations (A-E)ahead of the vehicle. In accordance with the present invention, thesystem will search ahead of the vehicle within a roughly pie-shapedsearch zone 22. Although there are four service stations (A-D) withinthe three block range of the vehicle, the system will list to the driveronly those two stations (B-C) ahead of the vehicle that are convenient(i.e. close to the desired route) of the driver and within the threeblock range. The driver can then select the desired station andnavigational instructions can be given for the selected destination.Although there is a closer station (E), the system does not select thissince it is not convenient and there are other stations (B-C) availablethat are convenient and within range. If stations B-C were not present,the angular search range 23 would be expanded 26 to detect stations Aand E. Station D, although convenient, is not selected due to its beingout of range 21.

In a preferred embodiment, the method of the present invention includesthe further steps of defining 68 user preferences (e.g. refuelingpreferences) of the driver, and filtering the found service stations inthe searching step with these preferences. The user can also define aparticular search range or shape, also. Referring back to FIG. 1, theuser preferences 11 are stored, such as in a memory file 13, by aprocessor either on the communication device 14 or remotely-located onthe network 12 and are coded per the vehicle or even the specificdriver. The user preferences are identifiers or terms used in a searchengine or as a filter (step 50 in FIG. 4) for downloaded information.The user preferences are input and coded by the communication device,either directly or through the user interface 16 or another interfacedevice. The coded input is sent to the memory file 13 to key the searchengine or filter downloaded information.

In particular, the coded user preferences can include, but are notlimited to; an explicit command from a particular driver that caninclude a preference by voice command (e.g. “BP”, “Mobil”, etc.) orcommand entered on any other input interface of the communication devicesuch as a keypad, touch screen, and the like included in the userinterface 16; an implicit command derived from a physical sensor ormemory instruction located in the vehicle (e.g. “diesel”); or a historyof user preferences. Downloaded information from the searching step canthen be filtered to find only BP service stations having diesel fuel.Moreover, the user preferences can allow a driver to custom configurethe search area.

As those skilled in the art will appreciate, the time and distanceinformation can be updated dynamically and automatically to change theestimated range as the vehicle travels to receive the necessarymaintenance. Along these lines the system can also pick the next bestchoice in the list of service stations if the primary destination ispassed, i.e. the driver misses or ignores the exit.

While the foregoing described embodiments have been set forth above, itwill be appreciated to one skilled in the art that the inventiondescribed has applications beyond the described embodiments.Accordingly, it is intended that the scope of the invention includingsuch alternatives, modifications, and variations contemplated shall bedefined by the appended claims.

1. A system to provide navigational refueling assistance for a vehicle,the system comprising: a fuel sensor; a positioning device thatdetermines a location of the vehicle and a direction of travel of thevehicle; a database of refueling stations, the database includingrefueling-station locations; a user interface; and a processor coupledto the fuel sensor and the user interface, and in communication with thepositioning device and the database, wherein the processor estimates aremaining-fuel range of the vehicle, defines a search zone for searchingfor refueling stations, the search zone defined by at least (i) an axisalong the direction of travel of the vehicle, (ii) the estimatedremaining-fuel range of the vehicle, and (iii) an expandable angularrange to either side of the axis, the angular range being initially suchthat the search zone is limited to an area substantially ahead of thelocation of the vehicle in the direction of travel of the vehicle, andsearches the database for any refueling stations located within thesearch zone, wherein if the processor finds in the database one or morerefueling stations located within the search zone, the processorprovides information on the one or more refueling stations to the userinterface for presentation to a driver of the vehicle, and wherein ifthe processor does not find in the database any refueling stationlocated within the search zone, the processor expands the angular rangeof the search zone and returns to search the database, and if theprocessor does not find any refueling station after the processorexpands the angular range of the search zone such that the search zonecovers a substantially circular area around the location of the vehicle,the processor thereafter expands a radius of the substantially circulararea corresponding to the search zone and returns to search thedatabase, the processor expanding the radius and searching the databaseuntil the processor finds at least one refueling station.
 2. The systemof claim 1, wherein the processor uses an amount of remaining fuel asindicated by the fuel sensor and a mileage rate of the vehicle toestimate the remaining-fuel range of the vehicle.
 3. The system of claim1, wherein the processor uses a speed of the vehicle to estimate a timeuntil the vehicle runs out of fuel, and uses the estimated time indefining the search zone.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the userinterface accepts input defining at least one refueling preference ofthe driver, and wherein the processor filters the one or more refuelingstations found in the database according to the at least one refuelingpreference.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the input is a voicecommand from the driver.
 6. The system of claim 4, wherein the at leastone refueling preference includes a preference for a refueling stationhaving diesel fuel.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the database islocated on a service provider network remote from the vehicle.
 8. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the database is located on board the vehicle.9. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor estimates theremaining-fuel range of the vehicle in response to a low fuel warningfrom the fuel sensor.